Bottle Sizes – the world's mandatory bottle sizes

The global standard bottle size for wines, spirits and liqueurs emerged as 75cl (750ml). In North America and much of the world it still is. However, in 1990 the European Union (EU) introduced a ridiculous piece of legislation which complicated this by dictating that spirit and liqueur bottles have to be 70cl while wine and soft drink bottles remain 75cl. Follows our guide to standard bottle sizes

Bottle size legislation

Overly complicated and restrictive legislation forces EU spirits producers to produce 70cl bottles for the EU market and 75cl bottles for export to North America so making it expensive for boutique distillers to export. Obviously the same is true for North American distillers wanting to make their products available in the E.U.

In November 2002 a European Commission working paper concluded that the EU is over-regulated regarding pack sizes so limiting consumer choice.